First Race Back in KL

I'm back in the KL race scene! The Dukethon. It's only a 5km race held over a stretch of the new DUKE highway. Most of the local runners are in Penang for the Penang Bridge Marathon today. I wasn't too keen in running Penang Bridge as it'll be quite hectic for me to travel 5 hours (drive) to Penang for the run. But it was mainly the start time that deter me from running the race. Marathon event will usually start at around 2.30-3.00am and the Half race starts at around 4am. This is way too early for a race.

Ray came over to my place to pick me up together with Mich and Tey. The starting line wasn't too far out from my place. We reached the location at around 7.10am. The highway was closed due to this event. Cars are parked along the highway. I could see that a lot of top runners were there, mainly because the race was only open for local runners and it offers cash prize for the 1st (RM2000), 2nd (RM1500) and 3rd (RM1000) in the mens and womens open category. Penang Bridge Run is open to foreigners and usually Kenyan runners will dominate most categories.

Ray, Mich and Tony

A sleepy Tey, our "official" photographer

The race started in a quick pace and soon find myself in a gap behind the fast runners. Although I was like 2 lines from the front at the start, I still had to push thru the crowds to get into a better position. I just can't understand why the slower runners like to put themselves in a risk of getting pushed by standing in front at the start. I already had first hand experience in getting step on the ankle from behind and fell at the start of the race. I had bad cuts then and didn't continue the race.

Back to the race. I tried as hard as possible to hang on to the pace, but had to slow down at around 2km mark. At the U-turn, I tried to check on the runners behind me and they weren't far behind. So, when Ong Chin (a fast veteran runner, never beaten him before nor gotten near him) overtook me, I tried to hang on to him. With about 1km to go, I decided to push my pace and leave him behind. I thought I was going to have my first victory over him but unfortunately, I ran out of gas. Still managed to get 10th place in a time of 19:07.

Head over to the drink tent to get some isotonic drinks and also one of it was giving out hot dogs. Then saw a tent giving out free massage, so told myself, "What the heck, it's free." It was only a short one and it didn't feel good at all. The masseurs there are mainly trainees.

Supervisor: This is how you do your massage

I think there was a competition for modified cars, as there were a lot of Ah Beng/Ah Lian cars parked along the road. For the benefits of readers who don't know what Ah Beng/Ah Lian means: It's basically stereotyping applied to young Chinese men (Ah Beng) and women (Ah Lian), particularly in Singapore and Malaysia. These groups are known to colour their hairs, bad sense of fashion, and of course modifying their cars. So when we see modified cars as in the photos below, we usually refer it as "Ah Beng" cars, albeit a Malay version as those taking part here are mainly Malays.

So what do we have for post run breakfast? Well, these are some of the meals I missed most in my time away to Melbourne. Teh tarik (literally means pulled tea) and roti canai (I had roti pisang). These delilcacies are mainly found in an Indian-Muslim (we refer them as Mamak) coffeeshop or stall. It usually served with gravy for taste, e.g. fish curry, chicken curry. So my running mates in Melbourne, we generally don't keep a healthy diet here. Kind of like Tony a.k.a Tiger Boy, ordering his usual fries in our post runs coffee sessions in The Terrace, Botanic Gardens.

Roti Pisang (Banana Bread)

Teh Tarik (Pulled Tea)